Iron Eyes

“He looked at her then, closely. Closer than he had when she first rounded the house on wet and shining legs, holding her shoes and stockings up in one hand, her skirts in the other. Halle's girl--the one with iron eyes and backbone to match. He had never seen her hair in Kentucky. And though her face was eighteen years older than when last he saw her, it was softer now. Because of the hair. A face too still for comfort; irises the same color as her skin, which, in that still face, used to make him think of a mask with mercifully punched out eyes. Halle's woman. Pregnant every year including the year she sat by the fire telling him she was going to run. Her three children she had already packed into a wagonload of others in a caravan of Negroes crossing the river. They were to be left with Halle's mother near Cincinnati. Even in that tiny shack, leaning so close to the fire you could smell the heat in her dress, her eyes did not pick up a flicker of light. They were like two wells into which he had trouble gazing. Even punched out they needed to be covered, lidded, marked with some sign to warn folks of what that emptiness held. So he looked instead at the fire while she told him, because her husband was not there for the telling. Mr. Garner was dead and his wife had a lump in her neck the size of a sweet potato and unable to speak to anyone. She leaned as close to the fire as her pregnant belly allowed and told him, Paul D, the last of the Sweet Home men. There had been six of them who belonged to the farm, Sethe the only female. Mrs. Garner, crying like a baby, had sold his brother to pay off the debts that surfaced the minute she was widowed. Then schoolteacher arrived to put things in order. But what he did broke three more Sweet Home men and punched the glittering iron out of Sethe's eyes, leaving two open wells that did not reflect firelight.”

-page 10      

“The eyes are the window to your soul”

-William Shakespeare               

This passage speaks loudly to these infamous words of Shakespeare. Here, Paul D describes the depth of Sethe’s eyes and the power they hold. Through his detailed observations and metaphorical comparisons, a once simplistic description of Sethe’s eyes evolves into a complex analysis of Sethe’s past and how it has transformed her into the person she is presently. Paul D begins by generally describing Sethe as “one with iron eyes and a backbone to match”, inferring her strong and courageous character as remarkable even to him. Describing Sethe as iron, which is the base alloy to the strongest forms of metal, gives her a dominating strength that sets her apart from most women- and men- at the time. Going on in more detail, he describes Sethe’s eyes, which intern mirror her personality as a whole. He talks about how her eyes reminded him “of a mask with punched out eyes”. With this metaphorical comparison, a new, secretive angle is identified within Sethe. Describing her face as a “mask” suggests she is hiding her true face, and intern her true self, from the world. From one perspective, this “masking” of Sethe’s ability to express her emotions gives her more dominance, because it can be interpreted as her putting her strongest face forward, overcoming her cruel past to confront the present. This theme of masking emotions again can be identified when Paul D describes the “mask” of her face to have “punched out eyes”, suggesting that her eyes, which regularly can identify so much about an individual’s state of mind, aren’t even on her face. It infers that she doesn’t have any present emotions at all. Paul D’s description goes even further, as he explains that her eyes “did not pick up flicker of light”. With this observation, a very dark, ominous aspect of Sethe is identified. The fact that her eyes don’t reflect fire, one of the brightest, most pronounced aspects of life, gives way to the idea that Sethe has so much sadness that her darkness overpowers some of the strongest elements. This theme is carried on in Paul D’s analysis, as he compares Sethe’s eyes to “two open wells”. From this, it can be inferred that, though Sethe masks her true feelings, hidden deep inside her they are plentiful.  Just like at first glance a well seems empty, Sethe’s front makes her appear unemotional- invincible. Yet, deep down in Sethe lies her true emotions, just like deep down in a well lies an abundance of water. Paul D’s descriptions and observations of Sethe’s eyes shows how strong, yet damaged, she truly is. Breaking the common stereotypes and interpretations of women, Sethe is portrayed as a women powerful enough to defy her past, defy her emotions, to confront what the present brings to her. Adding to this, the fact that Paul D, a man, is describing  Sethe, a women, as shockingly strong, reverts the common stereotypical gender roles of a man and a women.